In my last post, I wrote about the issue of deforestation from a very general, global sort of perspective. In this post, I’d like to focus on one of the places where deforestation is the most rampant, and has the potential to create the biggest impact on the world: the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world, covering an area the size of the 48 contiguous United States. It contains 10% of known species in the world, and likely many more yet undiscovered species. And, according to experts, it will reach a turning point within the next two decades where it will no longer be able to sustain itself and will quickly dry out and become a barren savannah. That is, unless immediate action is taken now, which is beginning to look less and less likely. 

The Brazilian Political Situation 

Brazil contains over two-thirds of the Amazon, so, naturally, most of its protection falls to them. The largest organization involved in actively protecting the rainforest right now is in fact a Brazilian governmental agency: the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Natural Renewable Resources (IBAMA). IBAMA has overseen the Amazon for the past 30 years and is responsible for enforcing the Brazilian environmental regulations that prohibit certain kinds of destructive logging and forest clearing. However, in recent years, IBAMA’s battle against illegal logging has only gotten more difficult, and the rate deforestation in the Amazon has continued to increase. This is partly due to a severe lack of support from the government. 

Jair Bolsonaro, the current president of Brazil, is a staunch conservative and retired military officer who took power in 2019. Despite outwardly promising to protect the Amazon, the Bolsonaro administration has only moved to weaken IBAMA and loosen regulations from the beginning, seeking to improve the Brazilian economy with more industry. Early on into his presidency, Bolsonaro publicly claimed to be “convinced” that data from a government agency showing worsening levels of deforestation in the Amazon was a “lie.” He continued by calling concern over the Amazon “environmental psychosis.” When asked about the importance of the rainforest to the rest of the world, he responded, “the Amazon is ours, not yours.”  

Meanwhile, according to that data that Bolsonaro was so quick to dismiss, deforestation in the Amazon was up 274% from the year before (which was before Bolsonaro took office). In 2021, deforestation under Bolsonaro was the highest it had been in 15 years. In last year’s UN climate summit in Glasgow, Brazil vowed to end illegal logging by 2028, but looking at the data, that seems like an empty promise.  

Illegal Logging 

The illegal logging industry in Brazil is run by an enormous organized crime operation. With the complete lack of governmental support for enforcement agencies like IBAMA, an estimated 94% of logging in the Brazilian Amazon is illegal. Illegal logging is currently happening at such a scale that is essentially impossible for IBAMA to police it all with their current resources. Conversely, the groups committing these crimes are incredibly well-organized, and have the money and resources from the profits of their operation to be able to stay several steps ahead of the law and avoid the consequences of their actions. To see this in action, read this National Geographic article that details an attempted IBAMA sting operation where the loggers were tipped off beforehand, and were able to mostly clear out of the area and avoid the brunt of the fines. 

Most illegal logging in the Amazon follows a specific pattern. First, the loggers go into an untouched area of forest, often inhabited by indigenous people, and cut down the rarest and most valuable trees to be sent to sawmills for their timber. This timber is then sold domestically using forged or fraudulent permits. Sometimes, they raze the remaining trees, usually with a controlled burn, and sell the land for use in farms using forged property titles. Even when the less valuable trees are left untouched, the sparser canopy allows more sunlight to hit the ground, causing an increased risk of wildfire. 

Logging in indigenous lands is strictly illegal, but many indigenous tribes are paid off to allow logging and forest clearing to happen in their area. Those that try to oppose it are often met with death threats. According to Aguamenon Suruí, a village elder who has forced loggers off of his tribe’s land, “They [the loggers] mention me by name. They say, ‘whenever we see him, we will kill him.’”  

Environmental Consequences 

As the largest rainforest in the world, the health of the Amazon has a huge impact on many global environmental systems. You may remember the most important of these impacts from high school biology class. Trees take in carbon dioxide (CO2), and release oxygen as part of photosynthesis. This makes trees one of the simplest and most effective methods of removing CO2 from the atmosphere, which is a huge step in countering global warming. So, cutting down millions of acres of one of the densest forests on the planet isn’t exactly good for the climate. To make matters worse, forest clearing produces a huge amount of carbon emissions on its own. So much so, in fact, that the net CO2 output of the Amazon rainforest is positive, when the sheer number of trees absorbing carbon dioxide should make it negative. 

Deforestation wreaks havoc on the local environment as well. As previously stated, the Amazon rainforest is home to 10% of known species on planet Earth. However, due to deforestation, over 10,000 of those species are now endangered. In one of the most biodiverse places in the world, this number should not be taken likely. While only 1% of rainforest plants have been analyzed for medicinal properties, scientists have already cited over 2,000 species as having anti-cancer properties. In fact, over 70% of the plants catalogued as having anti-cancer properties by the US National Cancer Institute can only be found in rainforests. 

Protecting the Amazon rainforest is vitally important for both the local ecosystem and the world. Yet, deforestation continues to worsen, and the Brazilian government continues to sit back and allow it to happen. Logging operations are beginning to migrate from the fringes of the rainforest towards its ancient core. If this happens, virtually no part of the rainforest will be untouched. In order to protect the world, the many species of the Amazon, and the sanctity of nature, something has to be done. If the Brazilian government won’t take action, then other world powers need to pressure them to do so. Despite Bolsonaro’s nationalist sentiments, something so vital to the global climate should not be the responsibility of just one country. Ultimately, the safety of the rainforest is a concern that should belong to all of us.